


Shattered Glass

by lilcrabcrab



Series: The Legends of Renjun, Chenle, and the Gangs [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Genderbending, Teenage delinquents, Theft, basically everyone makes an appearance - Freeform, because genderbending, everyone is straight, innocent flower girl chenle, the boys are all gangsters, the girls are just delinquent bad bitches, winwin is a bit of a bitch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-20 06:03:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18986749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilcrabcrab/pseuds/lilcrabcrab
Summary: Zhong Chenle is not your typical innocent schoolgirl: for starters, her sister Winwin is the baddest bitch in school, and she hangs out with a delinquent gang because she has no other friends. To make things worse, she absolutely hates it.Or at least, she does, until Huang Renjun turns up.After all, he isn't your typical gang boy.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello hello hello to those who subscribe to me as an author (love you guys) yes I'm back after disappearing for months, despite promising a whole lot that didn't happen. Don't worry! That's coming, albeit slowly, because school.
> 
> To the rest of you all, here's some important stuff to note before you start: a few of the members are genderbent in this fic. Those are: chenle, winwin, taeyong, jaehyun, ten, and yuta. Additionally, the ages are changed up a bit so that they can all go to high school together. Here they are, organised by year lines:
> 
> 01 - 02: 15 yrs  
> 00 - 99: 16 yrs  
> 97 - 98: 17 yrs  
> 96 - 95: 18 yrs
> 
> Apart from this, have fun, and enjoy the story! Please comment, I'd love to hear your reactions and thoughts.

To tell the truth, Chenle hated it. She hated the way that cigarette smoke hung in the air in front of her, hated the fake gold chains and the black leather jackets. She hated the wads of money that Winwin would hand her every every now and then, and hated where they came from even more.

Most importantly, she hated the fighting, the running, and the fact that she was here, sitting in a locked car at midnight as eight of her only ‘friends’ made their way into a closed convenience store.

Through the window. That they had smashed.

Chenle exhaled on the car window, letting the glass fog up, and then watching as the fog faded away slowly until she could see the figures moving inside the store again. If she had a choice, she wouldn’t be here - she would be at home, fast asleep, or watching a drama as she waited for Winwin to return. But there was one rule that their parents set for Winwin every time they left on their weeks-long trips.

“Don’t leave you your little sister home alone!” 

Winwin had mocked those same words earlier that night as she dragged Chenle into her car.

“They never said you can’t come with me, did they?”

So, she was here.

Craning her neck to see into the store, she tried to figure out who was who from the silhouettes. That tall one, who looked like he had gotten first dibs in the money at the till - that was probably Johnny, her sister’s boyfriend. The one next to him, mini skirt leaving her long shapely legs obvious even in the darkness: Winwin herself. The two figures with their backs leaning casually against the wall as they watched the street for intruders must have been Taeyong and Yuta. Yuta was unmistakable, anyways - her sleek purple pigtails and spiked choker created a silhouette that looked a bit like a demon and a lot like danger. The other two female forms inside must’ve been Jaehyun and Ten, Winwin’s other friends from school. Chenle couldn’t see where Lucas or the other gang members were, but she knew they were in there somewhere.

Suddenly, Taeyong spat a lump of chewing gum onto the ground in front of her, then turned and yelled into the store. “Looks like we’ve got company, hoes.”

It was only then that Chenle thought to look around, and saw the police cars heading towards them. From within Winwin’s car, the noises were dampened. The screams and yells outside sounded like she was listening from underwater, and Chenle felt a certain detachment from the situation, as if it wasn’t really happening to her.

She watched in morbid fascination as Winwin’s friends ran out of the store, carrying their loot and looking around frantically for a place to run to. Lucas was the first one out, and he dragged a giggling Ten behind him. In that moment, Ten looked almost crazy, with wild black hair framing her face and light from the police car headlights glinting off her nose piercing in blinding flashes. The two of them weren’t caught - they never were. Chenle noticed them run off into an alley nearby, and dazedly watched them disappear.

Distantly, she heard car doors slamming as the police got out, and someone screaming - it sounded like Jaehyun, but she wasn’t listening closely.

Then, too close to her, something shattered. The sound was so much louder than everything before, and finally, the idea dawned on her that this was real. Somewhere in her mind, she registered a faint voice yelling, but she couldn’t pay attention to it. This was happening to her, Zhong Chenle; she was in real danger right that second.

She needed to get out of this car. The police would arrest her, otherwise. She needed to go, right now, so she started to open the door and look for a place to run to and-

The door was locked.

She jiggled the door handle a little more, but it won’t budge. Winwin had the keys, and too late, Chenle realised that Winwin has managed to escape already and there was no way for her to open the door and she was going to be trapped here as the police came for them.

The yelling in the back of her mind got louder. Louder, and more urgent, and finally it broke past her waves of panic and she realised it wasn’t her mind yelling, it was the boy that had shattered the side window of the car and was now reaching in and beckoning at her.

She took his hand, and somehow, he managed to pull her out through the jagged glass. Once outside the car, she could hear the conversation taking place with the police - only Johnny and Taeyong were still there, and each were trying their best to take the blame off each other.

She heard the metal clinking of handcuffs and Taeyong’s cry of defeat, and then a voice was whispering “do you think you can run?” in Chenle’s ear. After that she was nodding and her hand was clasped in his and they were sprinting, through the shadows and into the dark side streets until Chenle couldn’t breathe anymore and they stopped, leaning against each other before collapsing onto the ground.

“You’re Chenle, right?” the boy said, once he managed to get his breath back. “Winwin’s sister.”

“Yeah, I am,” Chenle said, and then for the first time, actually looked at the boy next to her. “And you… You’re from the gang, aren’t you?”

He tapped his fingers against the concrete thoughtfully, then hummed in agreement. “Been hanging with these brothers since I was kicked out by my parents a few months ago, I guess. I didn’t really have anywhere else to go. If that makes me part of the gang, then I don’t have a problem with it.”

That seemed reasonable. Chenle nodded.

“What happened to get you kicked out?” She asked, letting curiosity get to her.

The boy froze for so long that Chenle didn’t think he would answer, before sighing, long and deep. “I don’t usually talk about this but… my dad used to hit me… he’d get drunk and come home to scream at us and one day he almost killed my mother… I guess that day I just decided to run. He’s probably happy that I’m gone.” 

“That isn’t really getting kicked out, is it,” Chenle said, a bit awkwardly. She didn’t know what else she could say, anyways.

“No, I suppose that’s just what I tell people. I don’t like it when they look at me like I’m weak and deserve pity. You’re probably going to do that now, aren’t you?”

Chenle didn’t think she would - she hadn’t even considered thinking of him like that. All Chenle thought was that he was incredibly strong, and admirable, and honestly quite handsome.

“I think you’re brave,” she said. The boy smiled wistfully at that. 

Chenle noticed herself shivering, and wrapped her arms around herself against the cold night air. While they had been talking, she had almost forgotten about the danger earlier, and how late it was. Her mind was starting to consider how she would even get home, but then she felt an arm around her and a warmth pressed to her side and she forgot everything she was thinking about.

She looked at the boy with a questioning gaze, but he only smiled a little and shushed her. 

“You’re cold, right?”

She was, so she snuggled a little closer, and they lay wrapped around each other in a dark city alleyway, listening to the cars going by every few minutes and watching the night sky above them. The ground was cold and hard against her back, and she had no idea how she would get home, but for the first time that night, Chenle felt alright.

She had almost fallen asleep when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket - she had forgotten it was there, and it was a miracle that it had survived and still had battery as well. It was Yuta calling, and slightly resentfully, she sat up to answer. It was Winwin’s voice that came through.

“Chenle, oh my god, Chenle, you’re alive, where are you?”

Chenle looked around herself, trying to figure out where she was.

“I’m not sure, but I’m in an alleyway and there’s a Starbucks across from it. What about you?”

“Yuta’s car, we’re coming to get you,” Winwin said, “are you with anyone?”

She looked at the boy next to her, and realised she didn’t know his name.

“Um,” Chenle began uncertainly, “some guy from the gang.”

She heard some giggling, and then they hung up. A car pulled up in front of them, with the window rolled down to show two teenage girls Chenle knew far too well, and she started to get up.

A hand grabbed onto hers from behind, and she turned around to look at the boy that had saved her.

“Renjun,” he said. “My name is Renjun.”

Chenle just nodded. Renjun, she thought, turning the name over in her mind. Renjun, the handsome, strong, kind boy that had protected her and stayed with her that night. He stood there, watching them serenely with his hands in his pockets as the three girls drove away. Chenle watched him too.

She was half in love by then, but there was no way she would admit that.


	2. Chapter 2

Usually, school was almost painful for Chenle. Considering who her sister was, and all her sister's friends, it made sense - no one wanted to be friends with a girl who got caught up in Winwin's gang activity. When people spoke about Chenle, they were either disapproving of the control that her sister had on her, or scared of the illegal stuff they knew she witnessed. 

Because of this, Chenle had no choice but to spend all her time with the very girls that made her feel both uncomfortable and at the same time not enough. It was true, anyways: Chenle wasn't enough. Not tough enough, not cool enough, not 'bad' enough. 

When Chenle felt confident, she could convince herself that was a good thing, but that wasn't often. 

One typical lunchtime, the Monday after she had met Renjun, Chenle was sitting quietly next to Winwin and Yuta, pointlessly doodling flowers on an artwork she was supposed to be finishing. In the corners of her consciousness, she could hear Jaehyun relating the story of her own escape that night. It didn't sound interesting. Chenle didn't want to think about that night, anyways - at least, not the escaping itself. 

That boy, Renjun, was a different matter. 

Just when she was about to remind herself not to think about him (why would she want to think about him anyways? He was just another gang boy), Winwin turned to her, pinching her side lightly to get her attention. 

"Gurls, did you know that little Chenle was with a BOY last night?” She smiled almost wickedly. “Our baby is finally growing up, isn’t she?”

“I- no, yes, not like that-” 

“Awww, look, she’s blushing!” Yuta reached over to squeeze her cheeks. “What did you do with him? Anything… interesting?”

“How do you expect anything to have happened after that mess last night anyways,” Ten said, with a pointed glance to the empty space on their table where Taeyong usually sat. “You can’t possibly think Chenle was off getting with a boy while Taeyong got fully arrested.”

“It was Chenle’s first police chase too, wasn’t it-”

“Second,” Chenle said, resentfully.

“Chenle, dear, just tell us the truth, do you-” Winwin paused dramatically for effect. “Like him?”

“No, of course not, I literally met him for like an hour and I didn’t want to be there in the first place!” Chenle turned away from then defensively, a pout on her lips. How dare they think she was like them, chasing after gang boys for the thrill of dating someone dangerous. “I’m not into him, leave me alone.”

With more drama than was necessary, Chenle packed up her bag and left them. It wasn’t like there was anywhere else for her to go; she just needed to get away from their vapid teasing for a second. Something about the things that they said had hit a nerve, and she stalked outside, mind swirling. 

As she walked, the annoyance at her sister and her friends faded, but somehow, she couldn’t get Renjun out of her head. The idea of that boy and his softly smiling face and the way that he had held her-

Chenle shook her head violently, as if she could shake this feeling right out of her mind. He was a gangster, committing crimes and ensnaring girls just like this. She didn’t feel anything for him, not at all, why would anyone even consider that? Even if he wanted her, she wouldn’t want him back. She couldn’t give the older girls the satisfaction anyways.

Approaching a secluded wall, she leaned against it, schooling her face into the intimidating gaze that her sister had taught her. Checking her phone, she saw that there were five minutes left until the next class. She didn’t have enough money to spend on data for her phone, seeing as she wouldn’t accept Winwin’s illegal earnings, so there was virtually nothing she could do, but she continued to stare at it anyways, pretending to be occupied.

“Chenle!” Winwin’s voice called from somewhere beside her, and she sighed, checking the time and seeing that there were still two minutes until she was free. Rather than answering, she put her phone in her pocket and fixed her eyes somewhere in the sky.

“We’re going up to the city to hang with the boys at their place, wanna come?” Winwin asked. Mercifully, she left out Renjun’s name.

“Now?” Chenle asked, suspiciously. 

“Yea, now. Come on.” Winwin grabbed Chenle’s hand, and she couldn’t find it in herself to shake her off. “Lele, I’m sorry if we went too far just then... forgive us, we can have a good time now and make up for it.”

“I don’t want a good time.”

“You wanna go to class instead?”

Chenle frowned. “Fine.” The beginning of what could possibly have been a smile made its way onto Chenle’s lips, and she pushed herself off the wall, trailing a few steps behind Winwin.

“Is Renjun going to be there?” Chenle blurted out after a while.

Winwin turned around with a smirk. “Dunno, why?”

“Nothing.”

“Really?”

“Yea, nothing.”

“So you DO-”

“Shut up-”

“Oooooh-”

“SHUT IT”

\---

The house that the gang boys lived in could hardly be called a house. There was no flooring, except for a few faded and mismatched rugs on a concrete floor. The walls were naked concrete bricks, and the stairs up to where they supposedly slept were made of rusted metal, held up by what looked like industrial scaffolding. There was a chandelier hanging from the patchy roof; Chenle wondered how it stayed there. It didn’t light up, anyways.

When the girls walked in, Doyoung and Jungwoo were already sitting around what they considered their living room, idly sharing a pack of cigarettes. Jaehyun immediately planted herself into Doyoung’s lap, and Doyoung blew smoke into her face gently, making her giggle. Everyone else arranged themselves haphazardly on the old and obviously stolen furniture, and lighters and cans of beer started to appear.

“So, what have you guys been up to?” Winwin leaned forward coyly, twisting a strand of hair around her finger.

“Nothing much-” Jungwoo started to say, but was cut off by Doyoung.

“We’re trying to get Taeyong and Johnny out of jail. Kinda need some bail money, to be honest.”

“JUST ASK THE GIRLS,” a voice yelled from aside, and Chenle’s heart skipped a beat. Something about that voice was strangely familiar and mysterious at the same time-

“YOU DO IT RENJUN, THEY’RE HERE RIGHT NOW-” 

Oh.

“Fine, I’m coming,” the voice replied, and Chenle tried to ignore the blush creeping into her cheeks and the pointed looks the other girls were giving her. So what if his voice sounded attractive - too gentlemanly for this wretched place, her mind helpfully supplied - that didn’t mean she wanted him like that. In an act of petty defiance, she turned to the other side and pretended to be fascinated by the chandelier. Some conversation about the money and logistics of getting Taeyong and Johnny out passed, before the topic moved on to plans for the rest of the day.

“Hey, Chenle, right?” Chenle looked up to see Renjun standing a few feet before her, entirely too close for her to maintain her composure. His lips quirked into a lopsided smile, and against her will, Chenle found herself looking at them as she nodded.

“Come with me, let’s get away from these boring old people.” Without warning, he grabbed her wrist, effortlessly pulling her up into a standing position. Before she could think to protest, he was leading her to the stairs.

Someone whistled, and Yuta called out “have fun babies,” accompanied by a knowing smirk and a lewd gesture. Expecting everyone to laugh at her, Chenle bowed her head and kept walking on, but Renjun stopped her with a hand at her waist.

“What was that, huh?” he shot back at Yuta, head tilted cockily. “You think that was funny?”

“Yea, can’t you take a joke?”

Renjun leaned down to whisper something in Chenle’s ear, and she smiled a little, before lifting her head and looking Yuta in the eye. “Better than not being able to take a cock,” she retorted, before turning and running up the stairs giggling, Renjun following close behind. The chorus of ‘ooh’s in the background didn’t fade until Chenle had made it up to the top of the stairs, leaning against the wall with an ear to ear grin.

“You don’t usually do that, do you?” Renjun said, once the giggles had subsided.

“Do what?”

“Talk back to them. Or whatever.”

“No, not really…” Chenle picked at the hem of her top. “Usually I just ignore them.”

“You should do it more. It’s fun, right?” he grinned, and Chenle found herself grinning back.

“Yea, it is.”

They walked down a haphazard almost-hallway and came to what seemed to be a bedroom - at least, there were mattresses, and a few blankets, and some clothes strewn around the place. He gestured for her to sit down on one of them, and she did, watching as he picked up a box from the ground.

“What’s that?” she asked, when he didn’t say anything about it.

“It’s just a little thing that I’ve found.” Renjun sat down beside her and opened the box slowly, looking at the contents as if he still wasn’t quite sure why he’d decided to show her. “Wanna see?” he said, eventually. 

Over the sound of laughter and yells from downstairs, Chenle started to hear a shuffling sound from within the box. Curiosity piqued, she watched as Renjun gently lifted a dark, squirming shape out. The shape looked up at her with big chocolatey eyes, front paws pedalling in the air.

“A puppy?”

“Yea, I saved him off the streets.”

As Chenle leaned in to look at it closer, the puppy snapped its teeth at her. It was too small to be anything more than incredibly cute. “I love him,” she said.

Renjun nodded seriously. “What do you think I should name him?”

“I don’t know, do you have any ideas yet?”

He frowned. “I’d always thought pudding was a cute name, but I don’t know.”

“It doesn’t really sound like a name for a puppy though, does it?” Chenle said, not really knowing what she meant by the words. “Sounds like something you’d call your girlfriend or something.”

Renjun was staring at her strangely - she must have said something wrong. “I mean, it’s cute, but-”

“No no, you’re right.” 

There was a silence for a while; the dog yawned, and its tongue curled out like a little flower petal. “What about bud? Like a flower? And short for buddy, as well,” she suggested.

The boy’s smile was back. “Yea, I like that a lot actually.” He turned the puppy around to face him. “You like that? Bud?”

It responded by squirming out of his hands and settling itself into Chenle’s lap, tail wagging happily. “I think that’s a yes,” Chenle said, giggling. Renjun leaned over, head resting on Chenle’s shoulder. For a while, they watched it as it shuffled around peacefully in her lap, oblivious to the happenings downstairs. Finally, Renjun turned, shifting to look at Chenle with an unnervingly enthralling gaze.

“I think so too,” he said.


End file.
